President Barack Obama has announced his intent to nominate the following five nominees to the Board of Directors of the Legal Services Corporation (LSC): 

• Robert J. Grey, Hunton & Williams, Virginia
• John G. Levi, Sidley Austin, Illinois
• Martha L. Minow, Harvard Law School, Massachusetts
• Julie A. Reiskin, Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition, Colorado
• Gloria Valencia-Weber, University of New Mexico School of Law, New Mexico

The White House press release announcing the nominations contains the following biographical information about the nominees.

Robert J. Grey, Nominee for Board Member, Legal Services Corporation
Robert J. Grey, Jr. received his B.S. from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in 1973 and his law degree from Washington and Lee University in 1976. He started his own law firm in 1978. In 1982, he was appointed by Governor Charles S. Robb to the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Board. He was appointed Chair in 1983 and served until 1985. He joined Hunton & Williams in 2002, and is also affiliated with the McCammon Mediation Group Ltd. Grey’s practice focuses on government relations and administrative matters before state and federal agencies.Grey served as president of the American Bar Association from 2004-2005 and Chair of the ABA House of Delegates from 1998 to 2000. During his tenure as President, he instituted the American Jury Initiative to educate the public on the importance of service, led programs to increase diversity in the legal profession, and fought to safeguard the profession’s independence. Grey currently serves as the Vice Chair of the Hunton & Williams Community Service Committee. He has also chaired the Committee on Research about the Future of the Legal Profession (2000-02) the Commission on Opportunities for Minorities in the Profession (1992-95) and will Chair the Rule of Law Initiative beginning August of 2009.

John G. Levi, Nominee for Board Member, Legal Services Corporation
John G. Levi has been a partner in the Chicago office of Sidley Austin, LLP for over 25 years. His practice focuses on employment litigation, executive compensation matters, and labor management relations. Levi represents corporate clients before numerous courts, agencies and arbitration forums. He also gives guidance on internal employment policies and governance. Levi has spoken at various employment law conferences throughout the years. Levi chairs Sidley’s Law School Recruiting Committee and heads the firm’s Committee overseeing its adopt-a-school programs. Levi has been involved in issues regarding juvenile justice and access of justice for many years serving on both the Cook County Citizens' Committee for the Juvenile courts, and the Board of the Jane Addams Juvenile Court Foundation. Levi also serves on the Advisory Board for the Northwestern University Law School Center on Wrongful Convictions. He is the immediate past President and longtime Trustee of the Francis W. Parker School in Chicago. He is the recipient of the 2004 Abraham Lincoln Marovitz "Lend A Hand" volunteer award, and was awarded an Honorary Diploma by the Parker School in 2003. Levi received his B.A. with honors from the University of Rochester in 1969, and earned his J.D. in 1972 and LL.M. in 1973 from the Harvard Law School.

Martha L. Minow, Nominee for Board Member, Legal Services Corporation
In June 2009, Martha Minow was named Dean of Harvard Law School where she has taught for nearly thirty years. During her tenure, she has also served as the Jeremiah Smith, Jr. Professor of Law, the William Henry Bloomberg Professor of Law, and the Acting Director of the University’s Program on Ethics and the Professions. Minow’s research focuses on equality, human rights, law and social change, and religion and pluralism. Her books address civil procedure, family law, and social services. She began her legal career as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and Judge David Bazelon of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Minow has served on the Board of the American Bar Foundation, the W.T. Grant Foundation, the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, and the International Independent Commission on Kosovo. She currently chairs the board of the Revson Foundation in New York City. She received her B.A. from the University of Michigan, J.D. from Yale University, and Ed.M. from Harvard.

Julie A. Reiskin, Nominee for Board Member, Legal Services Corporation
Julie Reiskin is the Executive Director of the Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition (CCDC), the only statewide organization of and for people with disabilities that has a focus on systemic change. CCDC has taken a leadership role within Colorado on publicly funded long-term health care. Ms. Reiskin has proposed and helped to implement many solutions to create a sustainable and client friendly Medicaid program, acted as a respected advocate for individuals and has trained many others in health advocacy and health policy. Prior to becoming the Executive Director for CCDC in 1996, Ms. Reiskin served as the organizations’ policy analyst. Ms. Reiskin moved to Colorado from Connecticut in 1994. In Connecticut, she was a partner in a consulting firm, specializing in diversity issues throughout Southern New England. She also had a private psychotherapy practice. Previous work includes, but is not limited to, several positions working with "hard to serve" youth and positive youth development, AIDS/HIV Education, and grassroots community organizing. Ms. Reiskin has taught extensively in the areas of disability rights, disability culture and disability policy, along with other areas related to diversity in human services. Ms. Reiskin got her Masters in Social Work from the University of Connecticut, with a major in community organizing in 1989. She obtained a B.S. in Women’s Studies from the University of Connecticut in 1985.

Gloria Valencia-Weber, Nominee for Board Member, Legal Services Corporation
Professor Gloria Valencia-Weber, University of New Mexico (UNM) School of Law, has a strong record of enabling poor people to obtain necessary legal services, especially for American Indians/Native Americans. The lawyers (American Indian and non-Indian) that she trains serve public interests, including the twenty Legal Services Corporation (LSC) units that specialize in Indian law. In establishing the Indian Law Certificate programs, first at the University of Tulsa College of Law in 1990 and since 1992 at the UNM School of Law, she is a pioneer. The model curriculum she designed is anchored in the unique law of the political relationship between the 562 federally recognized tribes and the U.S. In 1991-92 Valencia-Weber served on the Board of the Oklahoma Indian Legal Services. She regularly instructs in continuing education for Indian law attorneys and for tribal government officials and tribal court judges. Moreover, her scholarly research in Indian law covers critical areas including tribal courts, domestic violence, and the constitutional interface of tribal, federal, and state authority. Among her honors is induction into the American Law Institute. Valencia-Weber graduated from Harvard Law School in 1986 where she was Comments Editor for the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review and a C. Clyde Ferguson International Human Rights Fellow. Then she clerked for Judge Lee R. West, Federal District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, and Judge William J. Holloway, Jr., then Chief Judge of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals.

White House press release